Two Israeli Embassy employees were shot and killed Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., officials said.
“Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem wrote on X.
Two law enforcement sources told CBS News that the two were fatally shot as they exited an event at the museum. The sources said the shooting appears to have been a targeted attack.
“Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot this evening at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC,” Israeli Embassy spokesperson Tal Naim Cohen wrote on X.
Other employees of the Israeli Embassy who were at the event were also injured, sources said. The shooting was on F Street, near the FBI’s field office.
Two people familiar with the investigation said a suspect believed to be the shooter is in custody. Two sources said the shooter yelled “free Palestine” prior to the shooting.
Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, also wrote in a social media post that the shooting occurred “outside the event that took place at the Jewish Museum.”
Danon wrote that two other Israeli Embassy employees were wounded in the shooting, but that number has not been confirmed by authorities.
The shooting occurred at around 9:15 p.m. local time near an FBI office building in the 300 block of F Street NW, the DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department told CBS News.
Responding officers arrived at the scene to find the victims with gunshot wounds, unconscious and not breathing, officials said.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X that she was “on the scene of the horrible shooting outside the Washington, DC Capital Jewish Museum.”
FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on social media that “my team and I have been briefed on the shooting tonight in downtown DC outside the Capital Jewish Museum and near our Washington Field Office.” Patel said the FBI was working with Metropolitan police on the investigation.
“There is no ongoing threat to public safety,” the FBI Washington Field Office wrote on X.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.